Teeter-Totter house spotlight
A tasting film of Benoit Touquette's Teeter-Totter Cabernet, the same house and winemaker behind this 2021 California bottling.
The market on this bottle
Look up this bottle on Wine-Searcher for live market prices.
2021 Teeter-Totter Cabernet, California
Benoit Touquette's statewide Cabernet, black and blue fruit with tobacco and underbrush, a 91-point 2021 you can open at thirty dollars.
The 2021 Teeter-Totter California is Cabernet from sites across the state: juicy black and blue fruit, tobacco, underbrush, red currant, lead pencil, and a savory close, now $30.
Cult-cellar Cabernet manners, from California fruit instead of a Napa ticket
Benoit Touquette makes Realm, Hartwell, Kata, and Fait-Main. Teeter-Totter is how that cellar puts Cabernet on a Tuesday table. The 2021 California bottling pulls fruit from sites across the state. Jeb Dunnuck 91: juicy black and subtle blue fruits, tobacco, underbrush, medium body, a pure layered mouthfeel, drink through about 2031. James Suckling 91: red currants, terra-cotta, lead pencil, iron, violets, medium round tannin, a savory black-pepper close. This is the bottle that argues California Cabernet can stay elegant at thirty dollars.
The house
Touquette is a French-trained Napa cellar hand. Teeter-Totter is the value label from that same precision.
The wine
California Cabernet. Medium body, layered fruit, tobacco and underbrush, a savory close.
The scores
Jeb Dunnuck 91. James Suckling 91. Drink now through about 2031.
The drinker
Black fruit and pencil first. Decant 20 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Ribeye or short ribs.
Black fruit and currant, then pencil, violet, and pepper
Dunnuck found juicy black and subtle blue fruits with tobacco and underbrush on a pure, layered, medium-bodied frame. Suckling found red currants, terra-cotta, lead pencil, and iron shavings, then violets, medium round tannin, and a savory finish with a hint of black pepper.
A Cabernet year that kept fruit juicy without turning jammy. Touquette kept this statewide bottling medium-bodied and layered instead of loud.
Black and blue fruit, red currant, tobacco, underbrush, terra-cotta, violet.
Medium, layered, medium-round tannin, a pure elegant mouthfeel.
Lead pencil, savory pepper. Decant 20 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
A Napa cellar hand, statewide fruit, a lighter oak speech
Touquette's brief here is California Cabernet with Napa manners: keep black fruit, tobacco, and pencil in front, and let the tannin stay polite. The 2021 is built to drink now and hold about seven to eight years on Dunnuck's window.
This is the statewide sibling of the Napa Teeter-Totter. Same hand. Broader fruit. A lower ticket.
Decant 20 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Ribeye or a slow rib.
A seesaw label from a 100-point cellar
Teeter-Totter exists so Touquette's Cabernet language can sit on a weeknight table instead of a waitlist.
Touquette's day job is cult Napa Cabernet. This label is the counterweight: same precision, a California blend, a price you can actually pay.
The 2021 statewide bottling is that idea in a generous Cabernet year.
Thirty dollars. Matching typical retail. The point is the glass, not a discount slogan.
Ribeye on the board, short ribs in the pot
California Cabernet wants browned beef. Char pulls black fruit. A braise takes tobacco and pencil.
Two plates. One butter-basted ribeye. One red-wine short rib. Both can take this Cabernet's tannin and savory close.
Decant 20 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Wide Cabernet bowls.
Butter-Basted Ribeye
A hard crust, butter, and thyme. Teeter-Totter's steakhouse landing.
Why it works: Fat and char cushion Cabernet tannin while browned beef pulls black fruit and pencil through the glass.
View Recipe for butter-basted ribeye (opens in a new tab)
Red Wine-Braised Beef Short Ribs
A slow braise for tobacco, underbrush, and the 2021's savory close.
Why it works: Collagen softens the tannin. Reduction echoes currant, cocoa, and lead pencil.
View Recipe for red wine braised short ribs (opens in a new tab)Put this Teeter-Totter California Cabernet in the cart
Benoit Touquette, Jeb Dunnuck 91, James Suckling 91. Thirty dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is the statewide Teeter-Totter for a table that wants Cabernet manners without a Napa ticket.
